Banner Making: From Envision to Completion

Digital Banner Printing

Vinyl banner printing is a completely different process than cutting vinyl graphics. Banner printing is similar to printing on your printer at home or in the office. The main difference between your printer at home and the printer a banner company uses is in the size of print, the quality of print, and durability of the inks. There are different types of banner printers for different banner uses. Most banner printing is done using large format banner printers. However, all large format banner printers are not the same. The main difference between the printers is the types of inks that the printers use.

Large Banners & Rugged Outdoor

Large outdoor banners are usually printed on "billboard" size printers using special solvent based inks. These banners are usually viewed from a distance (greater than 20'). Because of the size of these banners, print resolution is usually not an important factor. Usually, the most important aspect of these banners are durability and longevity. The Vutek billboard printer can print in 12' x 60' sections and can be "tiled" together to form banners of almost any size. These banners usually have a double stitch hem and grommets every 2 feet.

Short-term outdoor & high resolution indoor

Many indoor and short term outdoor banners are printed on large format printers using inks similar to your inkjet at home or in the office. Each banner company uses different brands of printers for these type of banners. Our Epson printer, one of the highest quality printers available, prints using six color print heads (cyan, magenta, yellow, black, light cyan and light magenta) and prints with exceptional quality at very high resolutions (up to 1,440dpi). These "photo" quality prints are usually viewed close-up (less than 10') and are used for most indoor uses. They are printed with UV resistant pigment based inks allowing them to last for a few years outdoors. Because ruggedness is not an important factor, these banners are usually cut to shape (without stitching) and have grommets placed in each corner. For banners that are over 6' in length it is recommended to add grommets for proper hanging and installation.